Pankaj Advani, Geet Sethi & Alok Kumar for world billiards

Pankaj Advani, Alok Kumar and Geet Sethi will represent India at the World Billiards Championship which will commence in Carlow, Ireland, from August 23.

The trio was selected following the overall ranking of three camps, which were held in Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Advani ended his campaign with a top billing, while Alok and Sethi finished second and third respectively.

On the final day of the Z Camp held here at KSBA Hall, Advani beat Dhruv Sitwala 3-1, while Sethi overcame a deficit of losing the first frame 29-151 to beat Alok 3-1 in a crucial game. The experienced Sethi was on top of his game in his second game on Tuesday where he fought Sitwala’s challenge with brilliant potting to win 3-1.

The match was fought intensely and it could have gone either way with Sitwala gaining his momentum in the second frame by winning the frame 151-123, which included a break of 77. But Sethi battled it out relentlessly to win the following frames 152-32, 150-64 to qualify.

Alok, on the other hand, mostly known for his heroics in pool, has shown tremendous growth in his game in all forms including billiards. He had shocked Advani in the National Championship as well as Asian Billiards

Championship to win the title and since then he has continued to stay in lethal form. Despite losing both his matches to Sethi and Advani, Alok stayed in contention thanks to his performance in the previous camps. Meanwhile, though, Rupesh Shah showcased a determined game throughout camp Z to finish second, it was not sufficient to earn the World Championship berth as he is placed fifth in the overall ranking.

“I was quite optimistic of qualifying but it was hard luck I guess because I played good games here,” stated Shah.
KSBA will host the snooker camp starting July 6 between Advani, Kamal Chawla, IH Manudev and Manan Chandra.

Grand double for Pankaj Advani

INDORE:
Crushes Manan Chandra in a lopsided final of the senior national snooker championship

Pankaj Advani of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) bagged a double after crushing Manan Chandra (PSPB) 6-1 in a lopsided final of the Senior National Snooker Championship. Advani had last week won the Senior Billiards crown. Tamil Nadu’s Vidya Pillai claimed her fourth National Snooker title with a hard fought 3-2 win over Chitra M of Karnataka.

Manan had been in tremendous form leading up to the final, as he had 80 and 92 breaks in his semifinal win over Brijesh Damani while he notched up two successive century breaks (100 and 104) in his quarterfinal victory over Kamal Chawla. However, his form was erratic in the final and the resolute Pankaj Advani made the most of his lapses.

The first frame was close with Pankaj making a 67 break. Manan too replied with a 54 However, thereafter it was all one-way traffic as Advani’s potting was sure and his safety play was inch perfect.

Advani had another 52 break in the sixth frame and then clinched the seventh with measured pots.

This was Advani’s third National Snooker title. His earlier triumphs were (Hyderabad 2007) and (Jammu 2003).

“I didn’t expect to win so easily as Manan was playing very well throughout the tournament. I was also a little lucky as he did have some chances in a couple of frames but did not take his opportunities,” said the elated champion.

“My potting improved in the final. I felt I was pretty consistent with my long pots,” stressed Advani.

Advani noted that players like Sourav Kothari and Brijesh Damani are ones to watch out for in the future. “Sourav has been playing really well in recent years and the third place finish was his best in a national’s. Brijesh’s performance came as a pleasant surprise. He had never made it to the semis, so it was a good show by the youngster,” noted the 23-year-old.

Men’s final: Pankaj Advani bt Manan Chandra 6-1 (74(67)-63(54), 55-12, 62-23, 61-31, 37-64, 73(52)-0, 70-16; 3-4 Placing: Sourav Kothari bt Brijesh Damani 4-2 (57-72, 67-23, 39-45, 71-0, 97-25, 66-30); Women’s final: Vidya Pillai bt Chitra Magimairaj 3-2 (71-7, 43-44, 66-36, 37-72, 59-47).

Pankaj Advani becomes world billiards champion

Pankaj Advani proudly holds aloft his trophies after beating Geet Sethi in the final on Friday

Asserting his supremacy, Pankaj Advani on Friday annexed the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship (point format) with a comprehensive six games to one victory over Geet Sethi.

The 23-year-old Bangalorean delighted the home crowd at Karnataka State Billiards Association Hall with a superlative display, winning 150-90, 151-0, 150-24, 150-0, 86-150, 150-72, 150-12.

After a below-par semifinal outing on Thursday, Advani played with far more focus and swept the first four games in the morning session to gain a position of strength.

Though the veteran Sethi, with eight world billiards titles under his belt, won the first game in the next session, he could not get the momentum going, with his younger opponent dominating proceedings.

Advani said the "bad" semifinal had spurred him to come out with improved performance and it paid off.

"In sport, every day is a new day", he said after the match which promised to be an "epic" encounter before the start but turned out to be one-sided in the end.

He said every day throws up new challenges and it's different from the previous day.

Sethi said inclusion of billiards in the Asian Games inspired him to continue playing the game and expressed hope that it would figure in the Olympics as well. "I am still going strong, I still enjoy the game", he added.

Meanwhile, the time format of the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship gets underway from Sunday, with the final slated on September 10.

Geet Sethi in World billiards final

Geet Sethi staged a remarkable recovery to beat Devendra Joshi and enter the final in the points format of the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship in Bangalore on Thursday.

In an all-Indian semi-final, Sethi trailed by three frames before bouncing back in a tremendous show of grit and determination at the Karnataka State Billiards Association Hall.

Digging deep into his wealth of experience, Sethi eventually won 102-151, 95-151, 2-151, 150-126, 152-57, 152-16, 152-112, 150-0.

It was a tremendous turnaround as Sethi raised his game after losing the first three frames.

Winning the fourth boosted his confidence and there was no looking back thereafter. Joshi tried hard to get back into the reckoning in the best-of-nine games' encounter, but by then Sethi was home.